Issue V : June-August 2008

Editorial

The opening remarks by the Director-General WTO during trade negotiations which began July 21, 2008 in Geneva emphasized the need “to conclude the Doha Round in order to stimulate and stabilize the world economy”. Yet, the ministers from 30 member countries were unable to strike a deal on one important issue - the special safeguard mechanism for farm products for developing countries. The US Trade Representative Susan Schwab blamed India and China for the deadlock and in response India’s Minister of Commerce Kamal Nath is known to have said “I can negotiate commerce but I cannot negotiate livelihood security”. However, the failure of talks signaled wide scale disappointment as many believe that a multilateral trading system is less oppressive than a bilateral/regional one and any move that thwart it also stalls the progress of the poorer countries to achieve the MDGs. Others say that WTO undermines regional integration and this is crucial for the developing regions as such integration gives them more negotiating power in the international fore.

Thus, as the world discusses a renewed interest of the developing world in the trade arena we bring out this issue of our newsletter with a special article by Parthapratim Pal on the Doha Development Agenda and its outcome in the July 2008 WTO talks.

The other contributions include the article “What role Trade has played in Women’s Empowerment-A Literature Survey” by Anil K. Kanungo. He revisits the debate on the role of trade and women’s empowerment. Parthapratim Pal in his paper “Increase in Commodity Prices and Its Impact on Gender” attempts to highlight the consequences of spiraling food and fuel prices in the international market on developing countries with focus on women and children. An immediate result is less food availability for the poor households and lower nutritional content as well. Further, a fall in real income will also adversely affect the health and educational need of the poor. All this eventually lead to social crisis and “food riots” therefore seeking the priority of “right to food” over profit. Anit. N. Mukherjee’s article “Gender, Trade and Health” discuss the equity concept in development through trade and the possible health concerns. A positive relationship between increased health risk and trade, especially for women is poignant. A review by Sejuti Jha of the article “Nurses on the move: A global overview” by Mireille Kingma is reflective of the issue of regional integration and labour migration and the factors that determine such. In the engendering section, Bansari Nag revisits the role of the Government in regulating the Water Sector in Uganda via gender sensitive approach. In the interview section the expert, Ms. Indrani Mazumdar, throws light on the employment and labour market conditions with special emphasis on women in the post liberalization regime in India.

We hope this issue of the newsletter will contribute as another small step towards understanding the role of gender and trade in the context of overall development.